Edmund Clerihew Bentley was born on this date. This brief bio is from Wikipedia:
E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956), who is now best remembered as the inventor of the clerihew, was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century. Born in London, Bentley worked as a journalist on several newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph. His detective novel, Trent’s Last Case (1913), was much praised, numbering Dorothy L. Sayers among its admirers. The success of the work inspired him, after only 23 years, to write a sequel, Trent’s Own Case(1936).
My random thoughts on E.C. Bentley:
1) If Dorothy Sayers liked his novels, maybe i should add them to my ever-growing list of books to read.
2) Here’s an example of one of his clerihews:
The people of Spain think Cervantes
Equal to half-a-dozen Dantes;
An opinion resented most bitterly
By the people of Italy.
3) Bentley and G.K. Chesterton were “lifelong friends.”
4) Tolkien was said to have been a clerihewer. However, I can’t find any examples on the web. Anyone have a Tolkien clerihew?
5) One more clerihew by Chesterton:
The novels of Jane Austen
Are the ones to get lost in.
I wonder if Labby
Has read Northanger Abbey.
(Labby was somebody Chesterton knew or knew of. Never mind.)
6) Is anyone inspired to write a clerihew? If so, post here. I’m too tired.
Clerihews from Biography for Beginners
The art of Biography
Is different from Geography.
Geography is about maps,
But Biography is about chaps.
Here’s a clerihew I wrote:
George Armstrong Custer
Did all he could muster.
But being massacred by the Sioux
Was the best he could do.
Tolkien wrote several clerihews. They are reproduced in Humphrey Carpenter’s book “The Inklings.” I quote (or paraphrase) them here:
My audience, though select and small,
Is crammed with wealth of knowledge.
It’s rather stout and somewhat tall
And lives at Magdalene College.
***
The sales of Charles Williams
went up by millions
when a reviewer surmised
he was C.S. Lewis, disguised.